Dark Ride

by Iain Rob Wright

  “Goddammit, Sam, stop!”

  AJ took off after her, knowing he would probably slip off the catwalk and break an ankle. Terror jolted through his bones, but his mind couldn’t rationalise. What was he afraid of? That a lifeless chunk of steel and plastic had somehow come alive? It was ridiculous. There would be a simple explanation.

  He would laugh at himself any moment now.

  Please let me laugh at myself.

  Come on, just show me the punchline.

  The lantern bounced as AJ ran, light spiralling across the floor, the walls, the ceiling. Samantha’s silhouette raced frantically ahead – she was barely looking where she was going.

  AJ tried to catch up with her. He was faster, no question, but he was hurt. He gritted his teeth and picked up as much speed as he could. His boot came down on the edge of the catwalk, more off than on. His leg folded and he fell onto the steel track. His ribs broke his landing and all his breath escaped him in an anguished howl.

  “AJ!” Samantha stopped running and turned back towards him. “AJ, where are you?”

  AJ couldn’t speak. He was winded. A strangled moan escaped him, but that was all.

  “AJ, hold on, I-I’m coming back.”

  He tried to sit up, to wave her off so that she could get Greg and the others, but she continued racing back towards him.

  And so did something else.

  A silhouette stalked Samantha, moving mechanically right behind her. Moving jerkily. Samantha had no idea she was being followed. Preyed upon.

  AJ fought to catch his breath. “S-S-Sam!”

  “I see you! I’m right here.”

  “N-No! Turn… turn… around!”

  Samantha didn’t seem to understand him. She’d spotted him lying on the tracks and was hurrying along the catwalk towards him. “AJ, what happened?”

  The silhouette moved past her shoulder.

  “B-Behind you!”

  Samantha frowned in the light of the lantern, which he had somehow managed to hold on to. Finally, it dawned on her that AJ was trying to warn her.

  Her expression froze. She started to turn around.

  A figure leapt out of the shadows.

  The emaciated father glared at them. The animatronic’s cold, dead eyes caught the light and shone white. Somehow, it was alive.

  Samantha screamed, stumbled, and fell right on top of AJ. The two of them cowered on the tracks.

  The emaciated father stopped at the edge of the catwalk, glaring down at them.

  AJ clutched Samantha tightly against himself, both of them trembling. What the hell was going on?

  Laughter echoed in the tunnel and Greg’s face appeared from behind the emaciated father, beaming so wide that his teeth caught the glow of the LED lantern. “Guys, I’m so sorry. It was just supposed to be a prank. Are you both okay? Jesus, you two are a pair of clowns.”

  AJ was furious, but he was also so relieved that he was unable to do anything but lie there and pant. His heart was still in his throat. Samantha, on the other hand, didn’t have that problem. “Greg? You fucking arsehole! What the hell are you playing at?”

  Greg’s grin faded a little as he realised his joke had gone too far. “I’m sorry. I was just mucking about. Seriously, are you both okay?”

  Samantha climbed off AJ and pulled herself back up onto the catwalk. She approached Greg with such ferocity that Greg, twice her size, backed off. She poked him right in the centre of his bulky chest. “No, we are not fucking okay. AJ’s hurt.”

  “I’m okay,” said AJ, rubbing his ribs. He was pretty sure they weren’t broken. He’d managed to catch his breath and most of the pain was gone. His shoulder was slowly throbbing back to life though. “Just help me up out of this ditch.”

  “Sure thing.” Greg hopped down into the trench and helped peel AJ off the tracks. The fall had only been a few feet, but the steel tracks didn’t make a soft place to land.

  “I could have really been hurt,” said AJ. “You’re lucky I fall on my back for a living.”

  Greg helped him onto the catwalk and nodded earnestly. “You’re right, I’m sorry. My aim was only to scare you. I didn’t know you’d fall.”

  “I shouldn’t have run off,” said Samantha, cooling down now that she had expelled her anger. “Sorry. I overreacted.”

  AJ shrugged. “It’s okay. It was pretty terrifying.”

  “You see?” said Greg, beaming. “It was awesome, admit it. I totally got you both.”

  “No,” said Samantha. “You’re an arsehole.”

  Greg turned and picked up the emaciated father figure and started walking it forward, shuffling it along like a kid playing with a toy. “I came looking for you and I couldn’t resist it. The characters in this place are better than Tussaud’s. If you didn’t know better, you’d say this was a real starving human being, right? Look at this guy. His eyes are bloodshot, his teeth are dirty. I can almost imagine the smell of his ball sweat.”

  AJ rubbed at his ribs. “Yeah, it’s great. Let’s get out of the dark. I need another drink. Maybe some more of your painkillers too.”

  Greg frowned. “Pace yourself, mate. The night’s only just started.”

  “Yeah,” said Samantha, punching Greg in the back. “And you nearly ended it. No more jokes, you hear me?”

  Greg rolled his eyes. “Okay, okay, no more messing around, I promise. No more surprises.”

  You better hope so, thought AJ, more in pain with every step. Because I won’t let you ruin this weekend for me.

  Chapter Thirteen

  “I take it Greg’s plan to sneak up and scare the life out of you worked?” said Ashley as they clambered back up onto the embarkation platform. She was sitting down now with her phone stowed away, which meant she had failed to find a signal. The device would still be in her hand otherwise. Instead, she now had her expensive camera out of its bag and perched across her knees while she sat around Greg’s portable campfire. She also had a half-finished bottle of wine next to her bare, swollen ankle. The LED lanterns had been spaced evenly, lighting up most of the platform now.

  “We heard you screaming,” said Ben. “I assumed someone had been killed.”

  Samantha side-eyed Greg. “It was close. It’s dangerous back there on the tracks.”

  “Could have gone bad.” AJ rubbed his ribs.

  Ashley scowled at Greg. “I told you not to do it, you idiot. Why did you want to interrupt them, anyway?”

  “I wasn’t interrupting them. They were just chatting. Get off my back, Ash.”

  She lifted her camera and took a quick snap of his face. “There’s another one for the grumpy books.”

  Tasha sat on the floor nearby, eating a sandwich. She spoke with her mouth half-full. “We saw a rat while you were gone. Ran right across the floor and into the first room.”

  Samantha shuddered. “Yeah, we saw one too. This whole place is probably infested.”

  “They’re just scrounging,” said Greg. “Long as we keep our rubbish in the next room they won’t bother us in here.”

  “Unless they eat my foot while I’m sleeping,” said Ben. “I wouldn’t feel it. I’d just wake up in the morning with bloody stumps.”

  Tasha pulled the sandwich away from her mouth and groaned. “Bloody hell, Ben, d’you have to? I’m eating.”

  “I don’t like being around all these rats,” said Ashley.

  “Stop freaking out,” Greg told her. “Rats are scavengers, not lions. Just ignore them and they’ll ignore you.”

  “They carry disease.”

  “That’s city rats.”

  “How d’you know?”

  Greg shrugged. “Because I know everything. Now, just shut up and talk about something else.”

  Ashley took another snapshot of his face. “Dick!”

  “What is with you two?” Ben was shaking his head. “You’re like an old married couple.” There was chill in the air as Greg and Ashley shot each other a look. Ben caught the exchange and frowned. “What? What did
I say?”

  Ashley stood with her camera and walked away. “Nothing,” she said. “Let’s just enjoy ourselves. It’ll make a change.” She started snapping pictures of the fishing boats and various other parts of the scenery. Samantha went after her, eventually striking a sexy pose in front of one of the boats as the two girls conducted an impromptu photoshoot.

  AJ went and sat with the others while Greg paced alone. It was several moments before he decided to sit down as well. He inserted himself between Tasha and Ben.

  “You okay, mate?” Ben asked as he handed Greg a beer. “You don’t seem right.”

  “I’m fine. Me and Ash have just been fighting a lot lately, that’s all.”

  “What about?” asked Tasha, displaying no tact at all. She wasn’t a subtle person by any means.

  Greg rotated the beer bottle in his hand, studying the label. Then he turned to watch Ashley for a moment over by the boats. “We’ve been arguing about marriage. That’s what you said wrong, Ben. You said the M word. Ash wants to tie the knot, but I… I just don’t think it’s for me. Not yet.”

  Tasha took a bite of her sandwich and spoke with her mouth full again. “Aren’t you, like, thirty?”

  Greg scowled. “I’m twenty-eight.”

  “Big diff! I’m pretty sure Ashley is being reasonable by wanting to get married before she’s thirty. Why don’t you want to? You’ve been together a while, haven’t you?”

  “Yeah, but who knows how long we’ll make it. Maybe forever. Maybe not.”

  “You’re a fool,” said Ben, “if you’re waiting for someone better to come along. Ashley’s a diamond.”

  Greg nodded, and he seemed to realise he didn’t have the crowd on his side. “Yeah, of course, I agree. Suppose I just didn’t realise I’d got to this point, you know? Being married, having kids, all that. Always seemed a long way off, you know?”

  AJ cracked open a beer and swigged from it, then gasped and wiped his lips. “Still seems that way for me. If you have someone who loves you and wants to be with you, you’re lucky. Don’t take it for granted.”

  Greg nodded and held a hand up. “Okay, okay, give me a break. Ash and I will work through it. Relationships have their ups and downs, that’s all. You’d know that if you weren’t all a bunch of pathetic singletons.”

  AJ ignored the insult and patted his friend on his broad back. It was like slapping granite. “I’d just love to see you two settled and happy. You’d both owe me for the rest of your lives for hooking you up.”

  “I’ll buy you an Amazon gift card and we’ll call it even.” Greg raised an eyebrow at Ben. “So what’s new with you, man? Ain’t seen you in a while.”

  “I’ve been working a lot. I got office manager a couple of months back. Decent money, but boring as hell.”

  “Congratulations,” said Greg. “You always were the sensible one.”

  “Cheers.”

  “He’s joined a choir as well,” said Tasha with a smirk.

  AJ leant forward. “He did what?”

  Ben gave Tasha a deadly look, but it only lengthened the smirk on her face. “You had to tell them, didn’t you?” He looked back at the others and began to blush. “It’s not a choir, it’s an amateur dramatics group. We put on shows at the local theatre. I’m new, so I don’t have any on-stage parts, but I’m part of the choir.”

  “So you go up on stage…” Greg stopped mid-sentence to cover his mouth to keep from laughing. “Ahem, so you go up on stage and sing your little cotton socks off?”

  Ben couldn’t look him in the eye. “It’s just a bit of fun, man. I enjoy singing. Always have. And it’s a nice group of people. Sue me for having a hobby that doesn’t involve lifting weight.”

  Greg was beaming like a flashlight. “Will you sing us a little number now? Please?”

  “Screw you, man. Anyway, how is getting up on stage and performing Peter Pan any different to what AJ does? It’s all just a show.”

  Greg clutched his chest. “You’re doing Peter Pan? Please tell me if you get the part of Tinkerbell.”

  Ben looked at AJ and shook his head in disbelief. “My life is a joke to this guy. Haven’t heard him laugh like this the whole time I’ve known him.”

  AJ chuckled. “He doesn’t get out of the gym a lot. If it doesn’t involve testosterone, he doesn’t understand it.”

  Greg elbowed AJ. “Hey, man, I’m not just some muscle head. I read. I go to the theatre. Well, I went once. There were puppets.”

  Ben rolled his eyes. “Yeah, that was Avenue Q. It was nine months ago, man. I see it really made an impression.”

  Greg shrugged. “It was stupid. Like an episode of South Park but ninety minutes long and with a lot more singing. Hey, maybe you can get a gig with those guys? The puppet people.”

  “That would be sweet,” said Ben. “I wouldn’t have to see your ugly mug again for one thing.”

  Greg swigged his beer and belched. “You’d miss me, admit it!”

  “Like a haemorrhoid on my arse.”

  AJ spat beer through his nose.

  Samantha and Ashley returned to join them, finished with their photoshoot and attracted by the laughter. “What’s so funny?” asked Ashley, sitting down next to Greg and putting her arm around him. Apparently she had got over her strop.

  “Just guys being guys,” Tasha explained. “Talking about their arses.”

  Samantha rolled her eyes and dropped down next to AJ. “Sounds about right. Who’s got the wine?”

  Tasha handed over the bottle she was working on and Samantha took it and filled her cup.

  “Doesn’t quite taste the same out of a plastic beaker, does it?” said Ashley, grabbing a fresh bottle and filling her own.

  “Long as the end result is the same,” said Samantha. She necked half the cup in one and then filled it back to the top.

  “Maybe you should go easy,” said Ben. “You’ll be legless.”

  She rolled her eyes at him. “I’m just relaxing. Having fun” – she glared at Greg – “now that my heart rate has gone back to normal.”

  Greg raised his beer and grinned. “So how deep did you two get? I could hear your voices, but you sounded far away. Underground.”

  “We went down into this chamber,” said Samantha. “It was pretty cool. There was a giant head.”

  Greg smirked. “A giant head?”

  “Yeah, a giant head. You’ll have to see for yourself, but it was impressive.”

  Ashley filled her cup, having already finished the wine she’d just poured. “When are we going to take the tour? I wanna see the head.”

  Greg grabbed his crotch. “If it’s head you’re interested in.”

  Everyone groaned.

  Ashley rolled her eyes. “He says that, but if I dared try to touch it, he’d make an excuse.”

  Anger flashed across Greg’s face, and he shrugged her arm off him. “Will you shut the fuck up? No one wants to hear about our love life.”

  “What love life? You haven’t touched me in months.”

  “Oh, don’t exaggerate.”

  Ashley showed her teeth, and with her wild red hair she resembled a feral woodland creature. “My sister’s birthday.”

  “What?”

  “My sister’s birthday. That was the last time we fucked. And only then because you were drunk. My sister’s birthday is January fifteenth. Two months ago, Greg.”

  He looked at the others, then chuckled with embarrassment. “W-We’ve done it since then. She’s just being dramatic. Too much to drink.”

  Ben shrugged. “Hey, it makes no odds to me, man. I don’t need to know your dick’s schedule.”

  “Sounds like it doesn’t have one,” said Tasha, covering a smirk with her hand.

  Ashley broke out in cackles.

  It was the final straw.

  Greg shot up off the floor and kicked the half-empty wine bottle next to Ashley. It hurtled through the air and struck the side of one of the fishing boats. Miraculously, it didn’t smash. It just
clonked and rolled across the floor, oozing a trail of wine.

  AJ leapt up, startled by the sudden outburst. “Whoa, mate. Calm down.”

  Greg ignored AJ and pointed his finger in Ashley’s face. Ashley continued smirking, which didn’t help matters. “I am so sick of your bullshit, Ash. All you do is nag me. Then you fucking moan that I don’t want to marry you. Is there really any fucking surprise?”

  “Oh, go wank off, you sad fuck.”

  AJ had never seen Greg make a face like the one he was making now, and he feared his friend might go off like a firework. He reached out and placed a hand on Greg’s chest, easing him back gently. While AJ was no coward, if it came to blows, he wasn’t sure he could handle his much bigger friend. He was like a barrel full of iron. “Come on, mate, take a breather, yeah?”

  Greg was glaring at Ashley, and it seemed to take an effort for him to look away. “You’re tearing me apart, Ashley.”

  AJ moved him away another step. “Just go into the other room. I’ll grab some beers and we’ll talk, okay? We’re all a bit tipsy, but everything is fine.”

  Ashley went to say something, but Samantha shushed her. AJ was glad there was someone else trying to calm things down. What on earth was going on with Greg and Ashley? They were acting like they hated each other.

  Greg stormed off, heading from the light of the lanterns and into the darkness of the first room they’d entered.

  “Good riddance,” said Ashley.

  AJ stared at her, one of his oldest friends, and actually had an urge to slap her. “What is wrong with you, Ash? You’re acting like a right cow.”

  Ashley recoiled. He never spoke to her like this, and it obviously upset her. Good. He didn’t like her very much right now. He buried his disgust and went to help Greg. The guy might be an arsehole at the best of times, but he didn’t deserve to be mocked like this. Before he took a lantern and left, he turned back to the others. “Have something to eat, you lot. Soak up some of that alcohol.”

  AJ found Greg inside the next room, kneeling beside the gap they had made between the boards. AJ left the lantern in the centre of the room and hurried over to interrupt whatever his friend was doing. “Hey, man, you okay?”